The Age of Estrogenic Overdrive

[Guest guest]

The Age of Estrogenic Overdrive

From The Book RDA: Rats, Drugs and Assumptions

http://majidali.com/theageof.htm

 

We live in an age of Estrogen overdrive

 

 

There are two points that will be focused on in this article:

1. To show how xenoestrogens---chemicals that have estrogen-like effects---are

causing a growing number of ecodis-eases and ecodiseases, including the

near-epidemic increase in cancer of the breast and prostate.

 

2. To shed some light on the prevailing controversy concerning the clinical

value of synthetic estrogens for prevention of heart disease and osteoporosis in

women.

 

Nature's Prescription For Preserving The Human Species

 

Hormones are Nature's molecular messengers. To save the human species from

extinction, Nature created a rather simple design: It prepares the uterus for

pregnancy each month during the entire reproductive life of the women.

Estrogen peals during the first half of each menstrual cycle to prepare the soil

of the uterus for conception. If conception occurs, estrogen peaks further, but

in this situation, estrogen overload is balanced with a progesterone peak to

protect the beginning of life for the baby from unbalanced estrogen drive. As

the fertilized egg develops into an embryo and beyond, there is an outpouring of

estrogens from the placenta that also increase its output of progesterone, again

to keep the estrogens under surveillance.

 

Times have changed. There are simply enough of us on the planet now. Women do

not need to stay pregnant all the time. The way we live our lives has changed

rapidly, but evolution does not work that fast.

 

The result: A fundamental chemical conflict between the needs of 21st century

women and their hormonal clocks. Each month, an estrogen peak goes unbalanced by

progesterone.

 

What are the chemical consequences of estrogen overdrive?

 

Endometriosis---the growth outside the uterus of misplaced cells that normally

line the uterine cavity. It is a painful, often disabling disorder that can lead

to infertility. Endometriosis rarely occurs, if ever, in tribal cultures removed

from the rush of modern life.

 

Estrogens and Molecular Mating

 

In biologic molecular pathways, molecules compete for " receptor-mates " as

aggressively as animals do in the animal kingdom. Such competition among

molecules is based upon their structural similarities.

 

This, however, does not always hold, and many synthetic chemicals not belonging

to the family of human hormones actively compete for their receptors.

 

This natural phenomenon is well illustrated by the example of competition for

receptors among estrogens and estrogen mimics.

 

Following is an incomplete list of estrogen mimics.

 

Ingredients in plastics

Pesticides such as DDT and heptachlor

Plastic (polycarbonates) breakdown products

PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons)

Petroleum byproducts

Polystyrene

Marihuana compounds such as tetradyfrocaanabinol

Plant estrogens such as coumestrol, equol and zearalenone

Combustion byproducts

Electromagnetic fields that boost the concentration f estrogens in blood.

 

Exercise, Enzymes and Breast Cancer Risk

 

The body metabolizes its main natural estrogen called estradiol in several ways.

Two enzyme systems compete for an opportunity to alter the structure of

estradiol molecules, but they do so at two different locations, the 2-carbon and

16-carbon regions. The end-products of such reactions are quite different in

their biologic roles. For instance, insertion of a hydroxyl radical at the

2-carbon site produces an innocent molecule while that at the 16-carbon location

produces a genotoxic and breast cancer-promoting molecule.

Regular and vigorous exercise upregulates conversion at the 2-carbon site and

down-regulates that at the 16-carbon location, both changes offering protection

against breast cancer.

 

Breast Cancer, Estrogens and Xenoestrogens

 

Estrogens drive the rate of proliferation of mammary gland cells. This explains

the breast fullness and soreness experienced by many women during menstrual

cycles---and less frequently during ovulation---when estrogen levels surge. This

seems to be the principal mechanisms by which estrogen therapy increases the

risk of breast cancer.

 

Since 1940, the incidence of breast cancer has increased in the United States

and in Europe. Nearly 35 years ago during my residency, I remember that we saw a

very unusual case of breast cancer---unusual because the tumor occurred in a 28

year-old woman. Now we see young women, ages 21, or 26, or 29, with breast

cancer, and this is no longer unusual.

 

Two million to six million women in the United States and Europe were prescribed

DES--a synthetic estrogen--to prevent miscarriages between 1948-1971.

 

Melatonin and Estrogenic Overdrive

 

Melatonin is the primary hormone of the Pineal gland located in the center of

the brain. It is mainly produced during nighttime darkness. Light and

electromagnetics fields suppress melatonin production.

 

Melatonin is a powerful antioxidant. Among its other important roles is

reduction of estrogen production in the body, and probably reduction in the

number of estrogen receptors.

 

Studies of shown that the protective, estrogen reducing effects of melatonin are

significantly reduced by excessive exposure to light (including late night TV

viewing), electromagnetic fields, chemical pollutants such as pesticides and

fungicides, and many commonly prescribe drugs, such as beta blockers for heart

disease, high blood pressure and headaches.

 

If Estrogen Overdrive Is Real, Why Does Estrogen Therapy Help Some Women?

About eight to ten million American women are prescribed hormonal replacement

therapy by their physicians. Of these, about half discontinue hormones due to

untoward effects of hormones or for fear of developing breast, uterus and other

cancers. This means about five million women in the U.S. are taking estrogens

and progesterone regularly. If hormonal replacement therapy is all that risky,

why do some women agree to take this?

This question has interested me for some time. On the surface it negates my

theory about the estrogen overdrive described above. The answer is that they are

not made aware of healthful, natural alternatives to synthetic hormones. I make

three points here.

 

First, a vast majority of menopausal symptoms can be controlled with sound

nutritional; therapies exercise and self-regulation and without estrogen.

 

Indeed, many of the symptoms attributed to inadequate estrogen are in reality

symptoms of sugar-insulin-adrenaline roller coasters that respond well to

natural non-drug measures.

 

Second, for some of my patients who need further relief, I frequently prescribe

natural plant-derived " progestrone " creams.

 

Indeed, it is uncommon for me to have to use estrogen for symptoms that are

difficult to control otherwise.

 

Third, How do I explain the occurrence of hot flashes, fluid retention and

related symptoms that seem to respond well to estrogen therapy?

 

An insight into a possible explanation of this phenomenon came to me some time

ago as I listened to a patient describe her difficulty with sugar craving and

sugar roller coasters.

 

It occurred to me that the need of some women for extra estrogen for hot flashes

is similar to the need for sugar in someone craving sugar, or for cocaine in a

cocaine addict.

 

These are examples of receptor dysregulation, of energetic-molecular

disequilibrium, of molecular responses overshooting their marks.

 

No one recommends that we solve the problem of sugar craving with sugar, or that

we treat cocaine addiction by giving the addict regular doses of cocaine.

 

Why do we do so for estrogen?

_________________

JoAnn Guest

mrsjoguest

DietaryTipsForHBP

www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Genes

 

 

 

 

AIM Barleygreen

" Wisdom of the Past, Food of the Future "

 

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